Tested By You: TaylorMade Qi10 Drivers

TaylorMade Qi10 Drivers: Tested By You

WATCH: Four readers get fitted for the TaylorMade Qi10 driver family

The TaylorMade Qi10 driver family builds on the success of the Stealth and Stealth 2 ranges. While a few things remain the same as the previous models in the Qi10 range such as a 60x Carbon Twist Face, there have been some refinements that not only give this new line up a cleaner and more premium look but also help increase performance.

The introduction of the carbon infinity crown covers 97 percent of the total crown area, allowing for mass redistribution and in turn creating more forgiveness. The head itself has been stretched from front to back by 8mm, allowing the CG to be pulled further back, creating a 9 percent larger surface area than the likes of the Stealth 2 and allowing the brand to reach that elusive 10k MOI mark with the Max head.

There are three heads available, the standard Qi10 is the model that will be suitable for most golfers, the Qi10 Max is the most forgiving head in the lineup and the Qi10 LS is the low-spinning driver for golfers with high swing speed looking to lower their ball flight. With these three drivers, the Qi10 range has something suitable for golfers of any skill level. To put this to the test, we invited four of our readers to the beautiful West Hill Golf Club, Surrey, to be custom fitted into a Qi10 driver by a TaylorMade fitting expert Dan Morris and see what gains could be made in comparison to their current driver.

Alongside our readers being fitted into a new Qi10 driver, they also had the chance to see how the addition of a TaylorMade golf ball could improve their game compared to their current ball of choice. The new TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x golf balls are already tour validated and have been in the bags of Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood this season alongside the new Qi10 drivers.

Paul Nash

Handicap Index: 12 Current Driver: Callaway Rogue 9 Fitted For: TaylorMade Qi10 Max, 9°, Diamana T+ shaft.

Fitter Analysis
“It was clear to see early on in the fitting what I could change to get better performance. Paul struggled with high spin and losing the golf ball to the right. He was using a draw-bias driver and did get quite good ball speed from that, but we put him in the Qi10 Max head, which is the most forgiving driver head TaylorMade has ever produced, and that’s not only going to help him on his good shots but his mishits as well. We played around with a few different shafts but we ended up in the Diamana T+. This was going to spin a little less than what he currently plays but his dispersion and shot direction moved from the right hand side of the hole back towards the center and even managed to get a few turning over. I was able to give him a 9° head and add a touch of loft to close the face a little which got him hitting draws, something he said he’d never been able to do before and ultimately give him more distance.”

"I said to Paul, if you were going to play in a competition right now, get the ball out that you would tee it up with. It was a Pro V1. The problem that Paul had and other golfers use is that it was a lake ball. He said he uses Pearl A grade lake balls which made my job a little easier because I know I'll get better performance. I think we got 6mph more ball speed and from looking at his data with driver and then through the ball fitting, I wanted to get him into a TP5x. It's a five-layer golf ball that will keep the spin off relative to our TP5 but I was confident we would see improvement no matter what ball he pulled out of his bag. He'll see improvements on the golf course using the TP5x that will match up nicely with his improvements with the new driver."

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Golfer Feedback
“I’m currently using the original Callaway Rogue and my bad shots come from when I come across it and fade the ball too much. I would love to see less dispersion from a new driver, so my slices become fades rather than losing the ball too far to the right and any yardage gained would be a benefit. The new Qi10 driver feels modern and I could notice the dispersion difference straight away. When using my Rogue I was fading it quite a bit and with the Qi10 I could see my bad ones were less bad, I think they probably halved the amount of fade produced by the Rogue, which helped with distance as well as accuracy.”

Before:                                                     After:
Ball Speed: 133 mph                              Ball Speed: 133 mph
Carry: 206 yards                                     Carry: 218 yards (+12)
Total: 222.9 yards                                   Total: 240.2 yards (+17)

Stefan Andrews

Handicap Index: 22 Current Driver: Ben Ross Rip Speed Fitted For: TaylorMade Qi10, 10.5°, Project X Evenflow Riptide.

Fitter Analysis
“We tried a couple of different heads but actually came out with the Qi10, the head that sits in the middle, so you have Qi10 Max, Qi10 and Qi10 LS. We went for that one in the middle because he was actually very consistent and hit a right to left shape very well. I actually set the face a little open to him but didn’t tell him at first because I didn’t want him to be worrying about losing that one out to the right. I got him to tee it up a little higher and then he started hitting these high draws. Ultimately he was picking up a huge amount of distance from this change. The Evnflow Riptide shaft allowed him to feel the head a little more due to it being a counterbalance shaft and this allowed him to square the head up a little easier. He had no problem launching it and so we put him in the TP5 golf ball to get the launch a little bit lower, however the TP5 provides a little more spin so we managed to maintain the height. When hitting the TP5 on the range, he was carrying the ball I think 255 yards and around 272 yards with roll out and he said he’d never hit a golf ball like that.”

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Golfer Feedback
“I’m currently using a Benross Rip Speed driver and my bad shot with that driver is a high left-to-right fade. I’m looking for much tighter dispersion out of a driver and any more length is always good. The Qi10 is great, the ball speed is faster, the dispersion is better and it’s much longer than my current driver. It’s everything I was hoping to see from the day. I think this driver will help me improve basically everything about my driving on the golf course. I feel like I can go after my drives a little more and so I think everything about my driving will be better this season."

Before:                                                     After:
Ball Speed: 139.2mph                             Ball Speed: 143.7mph
Carry: 211 yards                                      Carry: 227.4 yards (+16)
Total: 242 yards                                       Total: 258.5 yards (+17)

Nick Gordon

Handicap Index: 2 Current Driver: TaylorMade SIM Max Fitted For: TaylorMade Qi10, 10.5°, Fujikura Ventus TR Blue.

Fitter Analysis
“I started Nick with a 9° head and the ball flight was quite similar. It was fairly flat and moving over to the left hand side. His dispersion was fine although it was creeping a little over towards the left. After trying a few of the heads, we ended up in the Qi10 but I gave him more loft with a 10.5° instead of a 9° head like he had been using. If I could give him a little more loft while not negatively affecting the spin and launch it a little higher, while moving it right to left, that was how we were going to pick up distance. Straight after giving him the 10.5°, his eyes lit up and the ball flight was much higher. I put him into a TP5x golf ball too because it was launching a little higher while keeping the spin off and I was giving him a little more loft as standard through the head. I gave him the new generation of shaft he was already using and everything took care of itself. He picked up three to four yards of carry which was good considering he is already a good player and was in a fitted driver already.”

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Golfer Feedback
“With my current SIM Max driver my dispersion gets quite wide and I’m prone to a bit of a push-slice. I came here curious to see how technology had moved on over the past four years and if I could tighten my dispersion and possibly gain a few yards but that would be a bonus for me. The Qi10 looks similar in many ways to my SIM Max, just a little longer on the top but I think it looks nice. From looking at the Trackman data from the fitting today, the dispersion is a lot narrower and the flight is a lot higher but not with the ballooning flight I got from my SIM Max. I now have a better spin profile and a lot more penetrative flight, which is lovely when looking up and seeing that after hitting a good drive.”

Before:                                                 After:
Ball Speed: 141mph                            Ball Speed: 141.8mph
Carry: 230.9 yards                               Carry: 233.8 yards (+3)
Total: 258.7 yards                                Total: 261.7 yards (+3)

Lisa Skelton

Handicap Index: 16 Current Driver: Ping G425 Fitted For: TaylorMade Qi10, 12°, Fujikura Ventus TR Blue.

Fitter Analysis
“After just a few shots I could diagnose that Lisa was going to need more loft and maybe a shaft with a little more flex and one that was a little lighter as well. I went for a 10.5° from the 9° in the Max head and straight away she said she liked a more classic look so we switched into the Qi10 model in a 10.5°. I could see it was producing that flatter, knuckle ball style flight that wasn’t spinning enough for her or getting enough launch so I moved her into the 12° and straight away it was launching higher and because she is a low-spin player, she was getting a little roll out. That's where golf ball is going to be key with her. We moved into the Ventus TR Blue shaft which she said felt a little more stable and there wasn’t too much movement on the flight. Everyone was watching and could see how much higher she was launching it and the numbers backed that up. We fitted her into a driver today that was very different to what she was currently playing and that’s great. The results show that a fitted driver will perform very different to a unfitted driver.”

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Golfer Feedback
“I’m currently using a Ping G425 and my bad ball flight is a slice that flies a little too low and so I’m looking for a higher ball flight and a bit of extra distance. I think the TaylorMade Qi10 looks great and the club I got fitted into has a lighter shaft than my current driver and so it feels much easier to control and get more clubhead speed with. I really enjoyed the fitting and because my current driver wasn’t fitted for me, I never felt my swing speed was quite quick enough for it. It was great to go through different lofts in the heads and weighted shafts to give me that higher trajectory and get rid of my slice.”

Before                                                      After
Ball Speed: 105.2mph                            Ball Speed: 109.3mph
Carry: 149.8 yards                                  Carry: 158.2 yards (+8)
Total:  179.2 yards                                  Total: 187.9 yards (+9)